In 1989, in an attempt to show the Grammys were cool and down with what the kids were listening to, they introduced a new category for best hard rock and heavy metal recording. It seemed like a great idea, however on February 22, 1989, a lot of fans were pretty shocked with what ended up happening.
Alice Cooper and Lita Ford Present Best Hard Rock and Heavy Metal Recording
Metallica, Iggy Pop, Jane’s Addiction, AC/DC and Jethro Tull showed up for the Grammy awards ceremony in Los Angeles. When it came time to announce the nominees and present the award, Alice Cooper was joined onstage by Lita Ford.
Metallica was nominated for their fourth album, And Justice for All; Jane’s Addiction for their debut LP, Nothing Shocking; AC/DC for their 11th outing, Blow Up Your Video; and Iggy Pop for Cold Metal; as well as Jethro Tull for their latest LP, Crest of a Knave.
“And the Grammy goes to… Crest of a Knave, Jethro Tull.” – Alice Cooper
“Nominations for best hard rock/metal performances are: And Justice For All, Metallica; Blow Up Your Video, AC/DC; Cold Metal, Iggy Pop; Crest of a Knave, Jethro Tull; Nothing’s Shocking, Jane’s Addiction.” “And the Grammy goes to… Crest of a Knave, Jethro Tull.”
Lars shed some light on exactly who these people are that vote for the nominees. He said some three weeks before the awards, all those who were in touch, the critics, the day-to-day involved people, assumed that Metallica would walk away with the award. It’s easy for them to think that but most of the Academy who vote for the nominees are in the age group of about 40-60 years old and are very much less in tune with what goes on in the music scene.
There was a widespread rumor that started to circulate afterwards that Metallica printed up several thousand t-shirts saying “Metallica: Grammy Winners”, which are now probably quite valuable if you can lay your hands on one.
Lars would go on to say, “I think the real victory was playing live and being part of the telecast. The visual and audio aspects of that will stick far longer than all those who won and lost. People remember the song we did and in the end who walks off with a gold-plated gramophone doesn’t really, it really isn’t that important.”
The Grammy’s Create Two Separate Categories
In the wake of the media uproar, Entertainment Weekly named the Jethro Tull award the biggest upset in Grammy history. As a result of the criticism, the Grammys separated the two genres in 1990, creating categories for best hard rock performance and best metal performance.
Metallica Wins for Best Metal Performance
Metallica would immediately win in the later one with one, also in 1989, as if to banish any lingering doubts about the Grammy panel’s ability to get it wrong.
Milli Vanilli received the best new artist Grammy, only to have it taken away from them when it was discovered that they actually didn’t sing on their records.
When Metallica’s Black Album won another best metal performance Grammy in 1992, Lars Ulrich ironically thanked Jethro Tull for not releasing an album in that year.
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